Hamerschlag J, in the New South Wales Supreme Court, has ruled that disputes between a licensor and licensee under a technology licence agreement fall within the arbitration clause in the agreement and, consequently, the arbitrator’s determination that he has jurisdication is valid and binding on the parties. The disputes between the parties related to (1) the application of the “improvements” clause and (2) whether licence fees would be payable if.. Read More

iPhone J.D. reviews an intriguing development: a standard from Non-disclosure Agreement “app” for your iPhone – iNDA. The developer told iPhone J.D.: “People often have informal meeting where they would like to discuss ideas with colleagues, friends, or prospective employees. We want to promote these meetings by giving people legal protection available to them at all times.” STOP LAUGHING, this is fascinating: The discloser actually signs the document with his.. Read More

Telstra and Optus have an interconnect agreement, in part to regulate how callers originating from one network get delivered to the other, charges and the like. Optus successfully sued Telstra for misusing Optus’ confidential information under the agreement: information about call traffic between the two networks. (You should look at that judgment as it illustrates the two-edged nature of many definitions of confidential information.) In this part of the fight,.. Read More

ALAI’s 2009 (biennial) congress takes place in London in June this year, to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the Statute of Anne (that shouldn’t stop you also letting off fireworks on 10 April 2010). Details here. Unfortunately, we in Australia no longer have a national group; but it is still possible to be an individual member or just go to the conferences etc.

Following on from last week’s Giller v Procopets, I was asked if Max Mosley’s payment of the prostitutes precluded a claim for breach of confidence, leaving him just with his Conventional rights to privacy. It is certainly true that the trial judge focused primarily on the invasion of Mr Mosley’s rights to privacy. However, his Lordship did also find that “Woman E” breached her obligation of confidence to Mr Mosley:.. Read More

The “IP issue” arose amid a number of claims arising from the breakdown of a defacto relationship. Ms Giller came from Russia in 1990 and shortly after commenced living with Mr Procopets. Together, they had twins, but the relationship was very rocky to say the least. Neave JA explained the circumstances giving rise to this part of Ms Giller’s claim: 358 … Ms Giller obtained an interim intervention order against Mr Procopets on.. Read More

IPKat reviews 2 new texts on the “interface” between aspects of IP and anti-trust or competition and an economics “reader”: (1) Nuno Pires de Carvalho, TRIPS Regime of Antitrust and Undisclosed Information; and (2) Irina Haracoglou, Competition Law And Patents: a Follow-on Innovation Perspective in the Biopharmaceutical Industry; and (3) Robert P. Merges (ed), Economics Of Intellectual Property Law. IPKat’s review here, and the IP Dragon entices us with news of a new (1 August).. Read More